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Jim Lobe, Washington Bureau Chief for Inter Press Service, discusses Obama’s current timidity in addressing the Palestinian problem despite his initial assertiveness, how Hillary Clinton’s lack of diplomatic skill has weakened Obama’s leverage with Israel, increased Palestinian and US interest in a “one state” solution and why ordinary Israelis won’t support a peace process unless the US is firmly committed to it.

Jim Lobe has served as correspondent and chief of the Washington bureau of Inter Press Service (IPS), an international news agency specializing in coverage of issues and events of interest to developing countries, from 1980 to 1985, and again from 1989 to the present. He blogs about foreign policy at Lobelog.com.

Since 9/11, Jim has focused much of his coverage on U.S. policy in the Middle East and the influence of neo-conservatives in the Bush administration. In addition to IPS, Jim has written for a number of internet publications, including Alternet, TomPaine.com, Foreign Policy in Focus, RightWeb, The American Prospect, the Asia Times, and the Daily Star of Beirut, among others. His articles appear regularly on Antiwar.com.

~9:30 ~ 'an apartheid state is probably not going to be supported very long by the west.'
–So I guess the scam is leaving the impression that Israel-Palestine relations are somehow 'unresolved.' But it IS resolved on the Israeli side: The De Facto Apartheid State is that resolution, and it will continue as long as there's a non-Israeli tit to suck.

Israel is a de facto 51st state of the USA and should be allowed to do whatever it wants, whether it's state terrorism as in Dubai with fake British, Irish and Australian passports, or Apartheid as in Palestine. It's not only the current administration that has vowed an unconditional support for the Israeli's far right government, senators and congress leaders approve the same policy unanimously! With that said, it's obvious that you cannot divide your 51st state and therefore, what we hear about peace talks is just a weapon of mass distraction and nobody should take it seriously – unless you want to be distracted anyway.

Jim is a helluva great coopted alternapundit. Oh wait, maybe he really does believe in that lovely Obama the Secret Peacemaker conspiracy theory; and maybe he really thinks that Hillary Clinton would never have any strategic and tactical reasons for her 'tough talk'; oh, and yeah, Iran is a real issue and not a bs issue conjured up out of newts and things that go bump in the night by the DC political establishment.

What a good little alternapundit. He snaps at the DC consensus a little, but pay no mind, for he does like that warm establishment lap…

Exactly – the talk about peace talks is a distraction. What the PA wants is more bribes, and so it doesn't want peace. What the Israeli leadership wants is the Left Bank, at least, so they don't want peace either. Ironically, the leadership most likely to want peace is Hamas, which is why they must be excluded from peace talks.

As per Ariel Sharon's claim on 03 October 2001: "I want to tell you something very clear. Don't worry about America pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."

Obama doesn't cave on Obamacare, because that is his monument, and an expensive political investment that will pay dividends of political power for the leftists for a very long time. After initial losses in 2010, it will pay great rewards later. But Palestine, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, etc.. Obama could care less. And why should he? There are no political dividends to be paid from those places. No votes that he can count. If he can't get credit for being a big peacemaker, he might as well keep those places out of the news as much as possible.

Remember,Obama's Chief Staff,rum Emannual is a member of the Israeli reserve army,and he hold s the rank of colonel,and he is an Israeli citizen,so are Dennis Ross,who is in charge of Middle East division in the State Department,and Richard Holbrook,who in charge of Afghanstan,both are Israeli citizens,what else do yo expect?

I think a sizeable minority of Israelis would prefer a zero state solution – expulsion of all the Palestinians. Their leadership isn't willing to go there right now, but in the context of a major regional war in which nukes were used, expulsion would be small beer and easily doable.